


day after day (without you)

by triggeringthehealing (froggydarren)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, Getting Together, M/M, Post-Canon, Tumblr: fandomwritingchallenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 16:56:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11063208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/froggydarren/pseuds/triggeringthehealing
Summary: Derek didn’t have plans to return to Beacon Hills, not anytime soon at least. But when his car broke down in San Francisco as he was making his way down to Mexico, the week’s wait for spare parts was a good excuse to visit. He told himself it was only to meet with Satomi, to add more to the journal he started writing as he traveled around the country and the world. For all he knew, after all, Stiles wasn’t anywhere near California anyway.





	day after day (without you)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [FandomWritingChallenge](https://fandomwritingchallenge.tumblr.com/) on tumblr. My prompt for this month was Calendar.

Cora asked him once, jokingly, if he was counting the days to Stiles’ 18th birthday. Derek growled in her direction, but didn’t flat out say no, though it would’ve been the truth. Back then, he had no interest in doing that, and by the time the arbitrary date was closer, he was long gone from Beacon Hills and from Stiles.

He did keep a calendar though, and he did mark off days, but he was not counting down _to_ anything. Instead, he knew exactly how long it had been since that afternoon in Mexico, and since the moment he’d driven away in the stupid Toyota that had barely lasted long enough to bring him and Braeden back to California. Once they crossed the border, she left to continue her chase and to finish her job, and Derek got on the first plane south.

Once he found Cora, he stuck around. They barely knew each other, and he wanted to fix the impression he’d made when she first returned to Beacon Hills. She told him he didn’t need to, but Derek couldn’t yet shake the feeling that he had a lot to make up for. When Peter joined them and updated them on what’s been happening back in their hometown, Derek almost packed up and left to help. He only didn’t because Peter told him there was nothing left to help with, and that most of the pack left for college anyway.

Derek didn’t need to hear Stiles’ name to know that he was one of those who left. Him and Lydia were always meant for bigger and better places, and Derek was glad to hear that -- unlike some of the others -- they did manage to get out. He wondered where though, but instead of asking he just marked off another day on the calendar.

Cora waved him off at the airport a week later.

He didn’t know where he was heading, and he spent the next several months going from one place to the next, between hotel rooms and packs that his family had known before the fire. The number of the marks in the calendar grew, and he started keeping a journal somewhere around the second visit with a pack. If anyone asked, he’d tell them it was just a pastime, something to do while he was on the road from one place to another.

In reality, he did it so that he’d be able to remember all the details in the future. He wrote things down so that he could tell _Stiles_ what he learned, what he saw.

Derek had no plans to go back to California, and definitely not to Beacon Hills. But that was where he ended up a few months later, almost by accident. His plan was to drive south, from Oregon all the way down to Mexico, following the coastline and not venturing inland. But when his car broke down in San Francisco, he had a week to wait for spare parts, and it seemed logical to get a rental and drive out for a visit.

He didn’t know what he should be expecting, so he headed for Satomi’s home first. She welcomed him with open arms, updated him on how the -- now McCall -- pack was doing, and sent him to them before he could settle in with her own pack for the week.

In town, he drove past the familiar places -- around the former Hale land that was no longer his property since the county took over years ago, through streets he still remembered well, into the industrial area where he found the old train depot demolished and the old building he’d owned rebuilt and full of life. It was all the same and yet completely new, the contrast to what he remembered striking.

He just sat down in the diner and opened the journal to jot down things that Satomi mentioned when he heard it. The laugh that he would never admit to having missed, the voice that he recognised easily despite the years that passed.

“Stiles?”

The name was a mere whisper, but when Derek looked up, he was greeted with the sight of wide open light brown eyes, staring at him in surprise.

“Oh my god,” Stiles breathed out, so quietly that Derek barely heard it, enhanced hearing and all. “ _Holy shit._ ”

It was so familiar that Derek couldn’t hold back a smile, and his heart skipped a little when Stiles’ face lit up with joy in response.

Barely five seconds later, he was pulled out of his seat and right into Stiles’ arms and into a hug that made him melt. It was one of those that he didn’t remember getting since Laura… well, a lot longer than Derek cared to remember. Stiles held on like his life depended on it, like he didn’t want to let go, and Derek felt the same when he finally reacted by wrapping his own arms around Stiles.

“I didn’t think you’d be in town,” he whispered, still holding on.

“I didn’t think I’d _ever_ see you again,” Stiles countered, and he hesitantly pulled himself out of the hug. “What are you doing here? Where did you go? How long are you staying?”

“Loaded questions,” Derek said, the smile still on his face. “You haven’t changed.”

He looked at Stiles properly now that there was some space between them again, and almost took back the statement. Stiles was different, despite the familiarity of his face and the rapid-fire questions. He was still as tall as Derek remembered him, but his shoulders were less hunched and arms more defined than in the past. He took Derek’s breath away.

“I’m just passing through,” he said when Stiles continued waiting for answers. He immediately regretted the way he phrased the answer, because Stiles’ face fell and his smile faded. “I have a week,” Derek added quickly, eager to bring the smile back to Stiles’ face.

“Oh. Well, it’s better than wondering where you are all the time,” Stiles mumbled, again keeping his voice quiet, so that Derek had to strain his ears to hear the words.

He wondered whether he was even supposed to hear them, but before he could react to them in any way, Stiles stepped back and glanced to the counter, then quickly back at Derek.

“Stay here. Please. I mean, it’s not an order, but…”

“I’ll be here,” Derek interrupted, and nodded towards the journal on the table.

Stiles nodded and rushed off towards the counter. Derek could hear him put in his order, but he didn’t watch. Instead, he returned to the journal, and the calendar at the back, circling the date instead of crossing it out like he’s been doing for the past few years. By the time Stiles came to the table, the journal was closed, pen resting on top of it.

“I interrupted you,” Stiles said with a pointed look at the leather-bound book. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, it can wait,” Derek tried to dismiss Stiles’ worries.

They fell into conversation easily, like it hasn’t been years since they last talked. It felt natural though, almost like no time has passed. Almost. Because back then, they barely had time for conversations, always running from one danger right into another. They never sat down to just talk, not when stopping was a good way to get caught and hurt.

Throughout the conversation, Derek noticed Stiles’ eyes drifting to the journal. It didn’t take long before he decided he might as well bite the proverbial bullet -- not a real one, that was nowhere on his to-do list for the rest of his life -- and open up that can of worms.

“Go on, ask,” he said, nodding towards the journal.

“Ask what?” Stiles pretended to not understand, but his gaze drifted towards the journal again. “That thing? Is that a new Beastiary?”

“It’s not,” Derek said. “Well, it has information in there that would make the start of a new one, or additions to an old one. I’ve traveled for a while. Still am, really. Picked up information as I went, wrote it all down.”

“That’s… awesome,” Stiles perked up visibly.

“Go on, have a look,” Derek said with a grin, nudging the journal towards Stiles.

It took a moment of hesitation, but then Stiles was lifting the front cover, and diving into the pages, all filled with Derek’s handwriting and the occasional sketch.

“Wow, okay,” Stiles mumbled as he flipped through the pages. “Man this would’ve been helpful,” he remarked when he found the page with information on kanimas. “And this,” he said over the page with the Alpha pack sign.

Derek watched him read, torn between the familiarity of the sight and the fascination he had with it again… still. When Stiles finally reached the last filled page, neither of them looked up at first.

“You were at Satomi’s,” Stiles said, almost as if he just wanted to fill the momentary silence.

“For a few hours only, but yes,” Derek nodded. The page of the journal that Derek had open barely had anything on it so far, only the contact details for Satomi. She’d told him a few things about her pack and the Hales, stuff that Derek didn’t want to forget.

“Where else have you been?” Stiles asked, fingers hovering over the page, clearly itching to flip them and read more.

“You can keep looking, you know,” Derek said, unable to hold back the smile at Stiles’ curiosity, a throwback to his hunger for knowledge back when werewolves became real to him. “I…,” Derek started, but paused because the words he wanted to say still terrified him.

Stiles waited, despite the permission from Derek, and his fingers rested on the page.

“I wrote it all down for.... Well, for you, really,” Derek finally said, the confession both relieving and scary. “I met people who told me so much, and I know you always liked to research, to _know_ things. And I hoped I’d run into you again someday.”

Stiles’ eyes widened, and his mouth opened in surprise.

“You… did you come here to find me?”

“No,” Derek answered, shaking his head. “I would’ve, one day. This time, it was coincidence. I didn’t even know you were still in town.”

“Again,” Stiles said. “I wasn’t, not until a week ago.”

“Oh. I guess it’s a good thing my car broke down yesterday,” Derek said, the corner of his mouth quirked up.

“Yeah,” Stiles whispered, and he dipped his head, his eyes on the journal under his hand. “So, this is for me?”

“There’s more I wanted to add,” Derek told him. “I was on my way to Mexico. Wanted to find the Skinwalkers too, and the Yukimura’s. I don’t know if I would’ve come back here,” he admitted. “I was hoping you got out. That I’d find you somewhere far away.”

“I did get out,” Stiles said, looking up again. “College, police academy, FBI training. I’m actually not staying in town, but I asked to be assigned to the San Francisco office, to be close to Dad. And the pack.”

“That’s… that’s good,” Derek stuttered out.

It was then that Stiles finally looked back down at the journal again, and moved his hand to flip the pages. He didn’t read though, just glanced through the writing on them. Derek, for lack of anything else to do, watched as Stiles’ expressions changed from one page to the next, switching between several that he couldn’t really pinpoint. It reminded him that he didn’t really _know_ Stiles anymore, even less so than he used to know him years ago.

They were both different people, and yet there was something that still pulled Derek towards him. He wasn’t a believer in fate, not after everything that happened in his life, nor in the lives of those around him. But he couldn’t deny the pull to the man in front of him, a stranger in some ways but a kindred spirit in others.

“So, do you have plans for the week?” Stiles asked, pulling Derek out of his thoughts.

“Not really,” Derek said. “I was going to see if Scott’s around, check in with your father or whoever is at the station. See if Chris is still in town.”

“I could…” Stiles started, and Derek noticed the way his cheeks colored. “I could tell you. Or show you. We could… get dinner, maybe?”

Stiles’ face showed a hint of hesitation, but Derek could also smell anticipation coming off of him in waves.

“I’d like that,” he said, dipping his head a little, his own cheeks warming with a blush.

“Okay,” Stiles said quietly, and Derek watched him take a deep breath, like he was steeling himself for something, before he continued. “Like, dinner as friends, or…”

It clicked then, as Derek looked into Stiles’ eyes, that maybe it wasn’t only Derek who hoped to see Stiles again. That maybe it was both of them wishing to run into each other again.

“Or,” Derek said quietly. “I like _or_.”

Stiles’ face lit up immediately, and the smile on his lips widened.

“Good, that’s good,” he said, but then he glanced at the journal again. “Now, tell me about what’s in here. And what’s not in, because I know you’d have kept some stuff out, just in case it falls into wrong hands.”

Relief poured over Derek, and he leaned forward to check which page Stiles was looking at. When he reached out to flip to a different, earlier, part of the journal, their hands brushed against each other. It only took a beat before Stiles turned his hand and linked his fingers with Derek’s, warmth spreading between their palms.

It was a start. A good start. And a promise of no more days without each other.

**Author's Note:**

> [my tumblr](http://froggydarren.tumblr.com/) || [my sterek fic tumblr](http://triggeringthehealing.tumblr.com/)


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